


When I Don’t Have You

by summoninglupine



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Coming of Age, F/F, Gen, Pokemon Sword & Shield References, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:49:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27603043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/summoninglupine/pseuds/summoninglupine
Summary: The night was warm, the window wide open. Lillie did not think she would ever get tired of hearing the other girl’s voice.
Relationships: Lilie | Lillie/Mizuki | Selene (Pokemon Sun & Moon)
Kudos: 17
Collections: 2020 Pokémon Holiday Exchange





	When I Don’t Have You

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Icie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Icie/gifts).



“Do you, ah, do you want anything?” she said, nervously moving her weight from foot to foot. “Is there, ah, anything I can get you?”

The night was warm, the window wide open, a faint breeze coming in from somewhere far away. She imagined Tapu Koko beating its wings somewhere, stirring up the breeze around its slender shape and sending it through the branches of forest trees to where it reached her now, through the open window.

“No thanks, I’m good,” the other girl answered, crouched down before the cabinet below her Tele-Rotom, pulling out the sleeves of records, and then sliding them back in once again.

Lillie did not think she would ever get tired of hearing the other girl’s voice, the clipped sound of her Galar accent, nor would she ever tire of the things the other said, even the stupid things, the complaints she made about how the sun here was too bright, how she burnt too easily, how she wished it would rain more. But no one on Melemele Island really wished it would rain more, and, well, it had been four years since Selene had first arrived here, since Lillie had come to terms with all the anxiety and fear that surrounded her feelings about pokémon, about the work her mother did, and she was sure she must have adjusted somewhat to the climate by now.

Four years, she thought again, they were almost childhood friends.

Again, the breeze stirred, reaching out to her through the open window, playing with the net curtains that kept the cutieflies drawn to the brightness of the light within firmly outside.

Still crouching, Selene reached out and decisively pulled out a record, a row of girls in tartan frocks and blue school jackets adorning the cover.

“Lillie, what’s this?” she asked, a playful smile touching her lips.

The other girl’s face filled with a deep crimson blush.

“W-What, I was like 6-years-old, my mother brought it for me.”

Selene nodded slowly, looking down at the record, and then flipping it over to look at the back.

“I didn’t even know this stuff came out on record,” she murmured.

Still blushing, Lillie tried to at least appear dignified. In the corner of the room, curled up in an old meowth bed, Snowy twitched, letting out a gentle whimper as her eyelids flickered and her nose wrinkled in her sleep. Chasing scorbunnies, her mother had always called it.

“I don’t like it _now_ ,” Lillie protested, feeling a strange and decidedly adolescent urge to not appear like a dork in front of the other girl despite the years in which they had known each other.

Selene nodded, studying the back of the record.

“I just used to like it then,” Lillie continued. “It reminds me of being a kid.”

We’re still kids, she thought to herself, and felt a sudden hint of sadness at this, not because she regretted anything about being a kid, but because she thought that realising such a thing meant that she wouldn’t be one for much longer.

“Uh-huh,” Selene said, smiling wryly, sliding the record back into place.

She stood up, stretching her arms above her head.

“Well, despite that, I’m pretty impressed. I didn’t realise you had so many records. Not even my ma and da listen to records anymore, you know.”

Again, Lillie blushed. Take the compliment, she chided herself. But, of course, she couldn’t.

“It’s not that weird anymore,” she protested hastily, “not when you think about it. Everything’s primarily digital now, but people still want something physical to show off, so they order records because, well, they want to show off, I guess.”

Selene nodded.

“Is that why you have so many of them?” she teased. “Lillie, are you a big poser?”

“I’m not!” Lillie protested. “I just… I like the sound of records, the feel of records. There’s a nice ritual.”

She turned away, looking out as the net curtains stirred, the sound of various bug types out in the wild.

“Everything changes so quickly now,” she said quietly, “it’s nice to remember how things were.”

Serene shrugged.

“Oh, you know, sometimes things change for the better, don’t be such a grumpy gus.”

Four years, Lillie thought, and still, on occasion, the other girl would say something so utterly incomprehensible that she would need to ask whether what she was being told was a good thing or a bad thing. Her gaze met Selene’s, and the other girl laughed, brushing a strand of dark hair behind her ear.

“It’s a turn of phrase, like misery guts or whatever.”

“ _Misery guts_?” Lillie repeated doubtfully.

Again, Selene laughed.

“Debbie Downer, maybe?”

A look of understanding crossed Lillie’s face.

“Aye,” Selene nodded, “you know that one then. That’s an Unovan one, that is. I thought you might know that.”

Lillie sighed, shaking her head.

“I’m so confused.”

“Pay it no mind,” Selene advised. 

She reached out and took Lillie’s wrist, who offered her a startled look in response as she was pulled closer.

“Do you want to dance?”

“Dance?” Lillie repeated.

“Aye. Dance.” She nodded back at the records beneath the slumbering Tele-Rotom. “Lord knows you’ve got enough records, I’m sure we can find something.”

She felt her heart beating faster in her chest, felt the rapid rhythm from beneath the cream blouse she wore, imagined it bursting free like one of those cartoon characters she had witnessed in Technicolor on distant Saturday mornings.

“I don’t know what to make of you,” she said with uncertainty.

Four years, she thought; four years since Necrozma had torn a hole in the world, had lurched through the tear from Ultra Space beyond, the sunlight glistening upon its obsidian, crystalline shape. Four years, she thought, since she had seen Selene stand there before the shape of that unspeakable thing, blood running down her leg, her litten at her side, fur matted with shards of broken rock and covered in dust.

Four years, she thought, since Selene and her brave little pokémon had defied all the odds, and saved them all.

“I’m just me,” Selene remarked.

And that’s what makes you so amazing, Lillie thought.

Realising just how close they were standing, she pulled away. What will I do when I don’t have you, she thought in a moment of sorrow; what will I do when we grow apart, when we grow older.

She smiled, trying to push the sadness down.

“Dancing could be fun,” she said, her blue eyes damp. “Yeah. Let’s dance.”

The net curtains stirred once more. Somewhere, in the distance, amidst the tress and the hills, Tapu Koko beat its wings, and cried out into the long, long night.


End file.
